The women's cross country team captured its first meet title of the year last Friday when it won the Fall Foliage Frolic. Tufts earned 22 points, 15 ahead of second-place Williams, in the race that was held at Williams College.
Williams, who is the second ranked team in New England, rested its top runners last weekend in preparation for this Friday's New England Championships at Franklin Park in Boston. The race was a 4k - 1,000 meters shorter the team's usual race distance.
"If Williams raced their whole team we would have not been expected to beat them," assistant coach Sarah Deeb said. "It would have been nice if they raced a few more people."
Nevertheless the Jumbos made the best of the situation and lack of competition, and dominated on the day, placing five runners in the top seven.
"Our 1-5 runners finished nine seconds apart and our 1-7 runners 35 seconds apart," Deeb said. "It was good because our top five and seven ran together; we needed to keep the distance small and run together."
The Jumbos were led by sophomore Lauren Dunn (15:49), who finished second overall, and junior Aly White, who placed third with a time of 15:50.
"Lauren ran as well as she has all year," coach Kristen Morwick said. "It was a big improvement in Aly White. She went out with the leaders and managed to stay with them. It was not a surprise to the coaches, but it was to her."
The team's habitual top runner this season, senior co-captain Heather Ballantyne, slipped out of that number one spot, finishing third for Tufts and fourth overall. But she was only two seconds out of a second place finishing with a time of 15:51.
"Heather did not have her best day," Deeb said of Ballantyne's performance. "She started out too hard."
Junior Heidi Tyson and sophomore Lauren Caputo rounded out the scorers for Tufts by finishing in sixth and seventh place, respectively. Like the rest of the squad, their times were close - 15:55 and 15:58 respectively.
"They both have been in the top five all year depending on the course and how they practiced," Morwick said. "I could see Lauren in the top three."
Freshman Rachel Brandenburg (16:24) continued to improve and finished seventh on the team and was the eleventh person overall to cross the line. "Rachel still cannot run everyday," Morwick said of Brandenburg, who sustained a stress fracture last summer.
Other runners who fared well were sophomore Emily Craighead (16:57) and junior Sarah Foss (16:58), both of whom finished in the top 12 of the Tufts runners, in 16th and 17th place overall.
"We accomplished what we needed to do," Deeb said. "We also got a chance to run on the course that is used for the ECAC's."
The ECAC Championship will be held at Williams, Saturday, Nov. 3, at 11 a.m.
The cross-country team is faced with its largest test of the season this Friday, the New England Championship, where top teams from all three divisions will compete. Seven people from each team are allowed to race and the top five score points.
"We are not expecting a whole lot this weekend," Morwick said. "It is not quite indicative on how strong our team is because the race has all three divisions."
